140 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



The following spring Ramsay visited Cauterets in the 

 Pyrenees accompanied by Dr. Morris Travers. They 

 started from the Thames and went by sea to Bordeaux 

 and on by train to Pan. Thence they travelled to 

 Pierrefitte, visiting Lourdes on the way, and reached 

 Cauterets in a snowstorm. An interesting letter to his 

 wife, giving an account of the visit to the springs, is 

 dated 2nd April, 1896. The Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society, 4th Feb., 1897, contain an account of the 

 examination of the gas from Cauterets, which was found 

 to contain both argon and helium. 



A difficulty which presented itself in connection with 

 these new elements was the impossibility of finding 

 for them a suitable place in the periodic scheme of 

 Mendeleeff, which had already been accepted by the 

 chemical world for the classification of all the previously 

 known elements. This difficulty was discussed in the 

 latter part of the paper by Ramsay, Collie and Travers 

 on the sources and properties of helium, published in 

 the Transactions of the Chemical Society for June 1895. 

 Here it was pointed out that " if argon possesses the 

 atomic weight 40, there is no place for it in the periodic 

 table of the elements." At the anniversary meeting of 

 the Royal Society on November 30th in that year, the 

 Davy Medal was awarded to Ramsay on grounds which 

 are set forth in the following passage in the President's 

 Address. After referring to his earlier work, chiefly in 

 connection with problems in physical chemistry, it 

 proceeds : 



